Kei Tsukishima
is a first year at Karasuno High School; he is a middle blocker in the Karasuno High Volleyball Club and is the younger brother of Akiteru Tsukishima. Appearance Tsukishima is very tall and has an average build for a volleyball player. Despite being a first year, he is the tallest player in Karasuno, standing at 188.3 cm. He has short blond hair and golden brown eyes. He is often seen with a frown or condescending smirk on his face. After joining the Karasuno volleyball team, during games, Tsukishima wears Karasuno's black, orange, and white uniform with the number 11 on the back. In addition, Tsukishima wears knee pads, and white and green volleyball shoes. He is also the only player on the Karasuno team who wears glasses. Since Chapter 109, Tsukishima started wearing prescription sports glasses (a gift from his older brother, Akiteru) in the matches. Outside of matches and practice, Tsukishima wears a black gakuran, the Karasuno male uniform, and white headphones around his neck. Personality Tsukishima is very blunt and has a habit of riling people up (usually Hinata, Kageyama, and even his senpais Tanaka and Nishinoya). He dislikes “hot-blooded people” and doesn’t like to exert too much effort due to the past experiences of his older brother. Aside from others like Daichi, Sugawara, and Asahi, he has little to no respect for his other teammates and is shown to be quite irritated at having to be close to them (seen as Karasuno huddled up to build up their spirits and again when he expressed disgust in having to stay with the team during training camp). He can even be rude to Yamaguchi which really shows his spiteful personality. The second years think of him as someone with a warped personality. Statistics Tsukishima is shown to be proficient at blocking. It has been said by Kenma that he was a calm and collected blocker who thoroughly analyses his actions, quite contrary to Hinata's behavior. He's also been known to throw out some feints to surprise and off-balance his opponents. Tokyo Expedition Arc While at first he shows little passion or interest in improving his blocking, he comes to request further advice from Coach Ukai, who redirected him to Tetsurō Kuroo, whom is known to be a veteran in blocking. He was given blocking advice by Kuroo and Bokuto and practiced with them throughout the summer. As a result of his training, by putting power into the very tips of his fingers and extending his hands out in front of him instead of above him, he learned to be exceptional at doing a "kill block." In addition to matching opponents with higher height and power, he learned to match the timing of his opponents and back them to a corner with a "conclusive" block. According to Akiteru, Kei isn't the sort of player who moves on instinct. He doesn't trust in his own strength, nor in the senses he's honed. He is so dispassionate that it borders on morosity. The only thing he trusts is the "information" in front of him. Later during their match with Shiratorizawa, it's shown that Tsukishima is truly a man that can "read block." It is also shown that Tsukishima is starting to really care about winning the game against Shitorizawa when his right hand gets injured while blocking one of Ushijima's spikes. He shows annoyance that he has to be switched out at such a crucial moment in the game, telling Hinata to buy him some time while he is gone. Hinata repondes saying that they will be at nationals by the time he returns. The fact that he entrusted Hinata shows how much better their relationship has grown, it is not perfect but certainly better than in the beginning. Trivia *His favorite food is strawberry shortcake. *'Current concern:' Upon entering high school, he once again has to put up with various people asking how to read the character for his first name.The character for his name (蛍) can be read as Kei, but is more commonly read as Hotaru rather than Kei. They both mean 'firefly' though. *He is always seen with his headphones around his neck whenever he is not practicing or playing. *Tsukishima appears to be good at studying as he belongs to Class 1-4, known to be a college preparatory class. *His birthday falls upon the day of the Harvest Moon''—''which is when the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, on the Chinese calendar is celebrated in September 2015https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival''—''which is ironic due to the first character in his name also meaning "moon." *He keeps toy dinosaurs on a shelf above his desk. Whether he actually likes dinosaurs or not is unknown. (Though it can be assumed that he does, as is demonstrated in a Let's! Haikyuu!? chapter.http://imadorimidori.tumblr.com/post/121320080913/a-lets-haikyuu-chapter-that-i-tried-to) *Tsukishima is often referred to as the moon while Hinata is the sun due to their surnames and opposing personalities. *His star sign is Libra. *In a poll conducted by Charapedia, a Japanese anime and manga character database, that asked which anime characters would they choose as the basis for their children's name, Tsukishima came in 9th with 98 votes among female respondents.http://www.charapedia.jp/research/0076/3/ *In Haikyū!!: One Shot, Tsukishima was actually as a second year when Hinata and Kageyama were first years. *'Nomenclature': **Kei (蛍) - Firefly **Tsukishima (月島) - Moon Island References Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Karasuno High Volleyball Club Category:Middle Blockers